Grannymar

Continuing with the theme of shells I have picked a different one this week.

View side on.

Looking into the shell

A view from the closed end of the shell.

Three drawings from different angles.

Colour study of two of the views above.

Beginning with the end of the shell, it brought Suffolk Puffs to mind, no they are not little cakes, but the little needlework puffs often used in patchwork.

Having tried several fabric varieties I settled on a vertion made with cold water soluble fabric.  When using dissolving fabric it is important to have a base of connecting and overlapping threads otherwise the work will fall apart.  In the picture above is a lacy puff before it was stiffened with a sugar starch.

My aim was to make a little basket as in the drawing above the Suffolk Puff above.

The front and back of the basket were both the same.  A circular disk covered in a very fine voile was used to line the Suffolk Puff of machine joined threads.  Carefully each loop was stiffened with sugar starch and worked into shape with pins before leaving on baking parchment for 24 hours to allow it to set and dry.  A handle was made in the same way and it was also stiffened before sewing to form the base sides and handle of the basket.

Side view.

I have said before that very often I see the finished item in my head before I try to work out a design.  There are times when the creative juices flow and the work comes together quickly, while at other times the project takes off on a completely different tangent and looks nothing like the original idea.  This time it worked out pretty close or better than my first thoughts.

Next week I have another surprise that had the same shell for inspirartion.

Nursing is a very difficult career.

I don’t think I would have the patience for it.

You have to keep checking if the patient is wiggling her toes!

Play hide and seek to keep the patient active.

Plot about the style of headstone to use. :sad:  These are in the Pet Cemetery at Antrim Castle/Clotworthy House.

Run away and see if the patient will follow, curiosity killed the cat and all that….

The tower is all that remains of Antrim castle, the building in the background in Antrim Forum.

The Motte was transformed into a magnificent “viewing mount” in the early 18th Century with a corkscrew path lined on the outside with a yew hedge.  Elly remembers climbing to the summit when she was younger, but now it is fenced in and only accessible upon request.

So I had my photowalk!  I kept to the paths and let the ‘children’ roam free.  When I had enough I took the keys and headed back to the car, leaving the staff the opportunity to walk at Nurse Hitler speed along the river Six Mile Water to the shores of Lough Neagh.

I only told Elly yesterday what happened when I reached the car.  I was walking on two crutches remember…. I dropped the keys!

Looking about there were plenty of cars but not a soul in sight.  I remembered the lesson my brother taught me:-

“You may not be allowed to bend more than 90° to touch the ground, but you can always stretch your leg out behind you”.

I set one crutch between the wing mirror and the body of the car.  Then using the other one for support, I bent forward with the operated leg out behind me and picked up the keys.  I had this manouver well practiced at home before I went for surgery.

When the rosy cheeked young lovers returned I was well settled in the car and ready for home.

Stuffed Tomatoes

Preheat oven to 180°C

• 2 ripe thick-fleshed tomatoes
• 4½oz fresh spinach
  1 garlic clove
• 2 tablespoons of butter
  Pinch freshly grated nutmeg
• Salt & Black Pepper
  Finely crushed croutons or breadcrumbs to garnish

Trim a ¼ inch slice off the top of each tomato and carefully spoon out the inside with a teaspoon. Pick over and wash the spinach, removing any tough stalks. Peel the garlic clove and skewer on the tips of a kitchen fork. Heat the butter in a frying-pan until it is golden brown. Add the spinach all at once. Stir immediately, with the garlic fork, add the nutmeg, salt and pepper and continue cooking for about 2-4 minutes until the spinach is bright green and quite tender but not shapeless. Drain off and discard any excess moisture from the spinach then pile it into the tomatoes. Top with the crushed croutons or breadcrumbs.
To Serve:
Put the stuffed vegetables on a baking tray and warm them in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes. Garnish with fresh herbs

Your date of conception was on or about 17 June 1946 which was a Monday. WRONG! That calculation assumes I was carried to full term. My mother never carried any of us for more than 7 months.

You were born on a Monday Yes!
under the astrological sign Pisces. Yes!
Your Life path number is 7. What is that?

Your fortune cookie reads:
Let there be magic in your smile and firmness in your handshake. The latter is true, I am not sure about the former.

Life Path Compatibility:   I don’t understand Life Paths
You are most compatible with those with the Life Path numbers 1, 5 & 7.
You should get along well with those with the Life Path numbers 4 & 22.
You may or may not get along well with those with the Life Path number 9.
You are least compatible with those with the Life Path numbers 2, 3, 6, 8 & 11.

The Julian calendar date of your birth is 2432254.5.
The golden number for 1947 is 10.
The epact number for 1947 is 8.
The year 1947 was not a leap year.

Your birthday falls into the Chinese year beginning 1/22/1947 and ending 2/9/1948.
You were born in the Chinese year of the Pig.

You were born in the Egyptian month of Pachons, the first month of the season of Shomu (Harvest).

Your date of birth on the Hebrew calendar is 18 AdarI 5707.
Or if you were born after sundown then the date is 19 AdarI 5707.

The Mayan Calendar long count date of your birthday is 12.16.13.4.10 which is
12 baktun 16 katun 13 tun 4 uinal 10 kin

The Hijra (Islamic Calendar) date of your birth is Monday, 17 Rabi’u'th-Thani 1366 (1366-4-17).

As of 10/10/2009 5:49:28 PM EDT
You are 62 years old.
You are 751 months old.
You are 3,265 weeks old.
You are 22,860 days old.
You are 548,657 hours old.
You are 32,919,469 minutes old.
You are 1,975,168,168 seconds old.

Your age is the equivalent of a dog that is 8.94716242661448 years old. (You old hound dog, you!)

Your lucky day is Thursday.
Your lucky number is 3 & 7.
Your ruling planet(s) is Jupiter & Neptune.
Your lucky dates are 1st, 10th, 19th, 28th.
Your opposition sign is Virgo.
Your opposition number(s) is 5.

Today is not one of your lucky days!

There are XXX days till your next birthday
on which your cake will have 63 candles.

Those 63 candles produce 63 BTUs,
or 15,876 calories of heat (that’s only 15.8760 food Calories!) .
You can boil 7.20 US ounces of water with that many candles.

Your birth flower is DAFFODIL

Your birthstone is Aquamarine

The moon’s phase on the day you were
born was waning gibbous.

Fancy playing this game?  Try: http://www.paulsadowski.com/birthday.asp

Carer Nurse seeks a new position of employment

CONDITIONS

1. Patient must be out of bed and dressed at crack of dawn before making their own breakfast!
2. Exercises to be accompanied with LOUD music and completed in record time - no grumbling allowed.
3. Patient should enjoy being frogmarched uphill and down.  No wasting time blowing your nose or pausing for breath.
4. Patient must help with knitting & sewing chores as required.
5. Patient must buy lunch for nurse at least once a week miles away from home.

LBC Members: Ashok (if his studies allow), Conrad, Magpie 11, Maria, Marianna, Ramana, Gaelikaa & Yours Truly.

On the 10^th of July this year four intrepid souls, coaxed by our leader Conrad, saw the launch of the Loose Bloggers Consortium. Now with the speed of lightening we have doubled our numbers to eight.  It is wonderful to read the different takes on one word or phrase every Friday.  A little like looking across a valley at the view, eight people all standing in a row looking in the same direction, each one seeing something completely different.  I wonder who will be the next to add their name to the list.

Nick…  What about giving it a whirl?

The topic for this week - speed - was chosen by Marianna.

For the past year or two there has been a great lack of speed in my life.  As the months passed pain made movement difficult and my days of attempting to run, walk quickly or climb stairs one step, never mind two steps at a time became a dim memory.  Age was catching up with me.  I began to accept that the face in the mirror really spoke the truth, facial lines were curling down, I took on a haggard appearance and the hair was becoming dull and grey with every wash.

Then a few months ago I was given hope… I was placed on a list for hip replacement, which took place almost four weeks ago.  With the surgery my pain evaporated, smiling became automatic and magically my hair was easier to manage and somehow the colour was not a problem.

To encourage me, Nurse Hitler Elly bought me a digital pedometer - well I think I was an excuse to buy the little console that came with it.  It has games you see.  There were actually two little pedometers, she wore one and I attached the other to my waist.  Out we went for my first walk…. It was the length of three bungalows to a corner.  Turning, I slowly worked my way back uphill and home.  Eager to tell me how I did, Elly did the technical waving and clicking to call up the numbers.

Zilch!

It didn’t register one step.  Elly checked the pedometer she was wearing and it had recorded the correct number of steps.  We tried the second time, again nothing.  Thinking my footfall was light we attached it to one of my crutches, again nothing, while Elly’s worked normally.  We decided my lack of speed was the problem.  I was walking far to slow for the steps to count.  We tried it on a friend and it worked.  We attached to George and it worked.  It was just me and my very slow pace.

Elly continued to wear hers and she tried to match my pace.  Each day we increased the stride a little further.  She checked each time we returned and the steps were counted (even the pedometer was scared of her!).  I was getting somewhere; I was slowly increasing the steps with every outing.

Yesterday she had a new chant: “Distance or speed?”

I don’t remember which we chose but it registered 800 steps!

Hare or Tortoise, I am happy at the moment.

Give it a week or three and the Toy boys better be on the starting blocks!

I wonder how long before these items are obsolete?

I am off to chew on my pencil for inspiration for the LBC post.  See you at 5pm (my time).

A lady goes to her priest one day and tells him, ‘Father, I have a problem. I have two female parrots, but they only know how to say one thing.’

‘What do they say?’ the priest inquired.

They say, ‘Hi, we’re hookers! Do you want to have some fun?’

That’s obscene!’ the priest exclaimed d, Then he thought for a moment.

‘You know,’ he said, ‘I may have a solution to your problem. I have two male talking parrots, which I have taught to pray and read the Bible. Bring your two parrots over to my house, and we’ll put them in the cage with Francis and Peter.

My parrots can teach your parrots to praise and worship, and your parrots are sure to stop saying that phrase in no time.’
Thank you,’ the woman responded, ‘This may very well be the solution.’

The next day, she brought her female parrots to the priest’s house.

As he ushered her in, she saw that his two male parrots were inside their cage holding rosary beads and praying. Impressed, she walked over and placed her parrots in with them. After a few minutes, the female parrots cried out in unison: ‘Hi, we’re hookers! Do you want to have some fun?’

There was stunned silence. Shocked, one male parrot looked over at the other male parrot and exclaimed, ‘Put the beads away, Frank. Our prayers have been answered!’

It started with a shell

Then the lines in the small drawing were exagerated, some removed and others added.

It became an egg.

And another view

I covered a marble egg with a double layer of plastic food wrap.  Next I soaked a piece of coarse fabric in water based adhesive slightly diluted and wrapped it around the egg making sure it was completely smooth and solid. Once I was happy I left it to dry standing in an egg cup for about 24 hours, turning it once.

It can be a messy job, so I always work on the counter in the kitchen keeping it protected with a sheet of plastic.  I had one sheet of strong plastic just the right size for my counter and washed it after every new task.  15 minutes over the clothes line and it was dry again.  I still have it somewhere and it is well marked with the the various coloured paints I used down the years.

Once the fabric was dry, I carefully made a slit in the fabric and slowly slipped out the marble egg and the plastic wrap.  Once again I left the fabric shape sit for another day to make sure it dried from the inside.

The outer decoration was completed with exagerated long stitches and large french knots roughly following the lines of the drawing above.  Once I was happy I used a piece of silk to line it in a loosly gathered pattern.  That was the most difficult part of the whole exercise.

I found these friendly fellows at some stage earlier in the year.

I am itching to get out for a proper photo walk…. it WILL happen…… soon!